The Framers Forum

I am pretty new to framing and have just picked up a Morso guillotine, which I purchased used, several months ago.
The machine had been stored for several years, and had been liberally greased, before storage.
Whilst cleaning off the congealed grease and very light rust, I was surprised to find that I appeared to have something of a geometry problem.
When viewed from the front, the threaded draw bar is inclined to the left and both of the foot pedal tipper bars touch the right hand side of their respective slots in the body. I doubt if this is correct, perhaps a more knowledgable forum member can offer some advice, on how best to correct this.

Be the Morso!

Stand with both arms outstretched and parrallel to the ground - make like a cross.

Then, without thinking about it or moving your feet, pivot to the left or right and look what has happened to your legs. Your legs have pivoted with your body.

The Morso can do that.

Now do the same but this time think about it - pivot your body without having your legs move one bit.

The Morso can't do that

Maybe the machine has been stored and/or is now standing 'pivoted' and has set in that position and just needs a good twist in the opposite direction, a bit of physio/massage so that the bones/skeleton (moving parts - rods etc) are in tune with the body (casing)

Thanks to the two forum members who took the time to respond to my original query.
I have now spent some time, examining my machine in detail and it appears to have suffered a severe torsional trauma.
The frame or body is badly distorted, to the point where a significant misalignment occurs between the top cutting part and the lower pressed frame/body.
Does anyone have a spare frame? unlikely but I do need to ask the question?

Hi,
Any chance of putting a few photos up? I have worked on quite a few over the years and use one daily, I'm always struck by how solid they are. It would take a bit of a bump to do whats happened to yours.
Can you not contact the seller as it must have been like that when you bought it?

The lower part is quite a flimsy constuction compared with the business end. Maybe it had been left somewhere with the right extension still attached which, with a bit of pressure on it, could have provided enough leverage to twist the frame.

The thought occurs that rather than try to get a new/used stand, you could fairly easily knock one up out of wood. Be a one of a kind. And a heck of a lot cheaper I'll bet. With a bit more ingenuity you could even build in a waste collection system.

I hope the attached sketch and images will help illustrate the scale and nature of the problem

The threaded rod is not connected to the pedal linkage - did you disconnect it?

I'm thinking I should also be seeing two serious return springs - could be wrong - maybe the casing is hiding them, but I don't think so, did you remove the springs?

The chunk of wood preventing the blades (which hopefully are not fitted, so, the blade housing) from dropping - might not be a straight chunk of wood.

Going by the good paintwork and lack of rust and scratches, it looks like a machine in good nick but with some bits missing.

Your back bone ain't connected to your hip bone and your hip bone ain't connected to your leg bone!

If that's how you received it and there's no box with two springs and a nut ..... at least ................ you bin' conned reeeeal gooood, brother!

Have a manual - check you've got all the bits .... http://www.thepaperframer.com/manuals/M ... tsList.pdf

Re the link - adjust to 100% to make scrolling easier.

As Mr Roboframer says, it loks to be in good condition, paint wise etc, certainly better than mine..............check out the list to see what your missing etc, would be good for you to get a visit with someone with a fully operational morso, just so you can see what goes where with your own eyes, picture framers are generally a friendly bunch, happy to help. If you find yourself in Glasgow i'd be more than happy to help but i think/hope you'll find someone closer to home.
Don't despair too much about the missing springs(if they are indeed missing) as these are one of the only parts you'd ever need to replace anyway (not very often though, as i've only broken 3 i think in 16+years). They are about £45 for a pair.

Good Luck

The machine is/was complete, I disconnected the draw bar from the stirrup and removed the springs and their attachements to help highlight the misalignment.
I come from an engineering background, this is a pretty simple mechanism and I find it very difficult, to see how this amount of distortion could have occured.

traighbum

Look at it from a different angle, the moulding is placed across the width of the machine on the steel plate, when the pedal is operated the blade cuts it cuts a V out of the moulding giving you 2 angles to form a corner

I once came across this problem a few years ago.
At some point the machine has been dropped on to a hard floor which resulted in the lower casing distorting (hence the height difference between the left / right sides) resulting in the pedal mechanism being out of alignment with the cutting head.
Mark

I'll start by qualifying this as it may be of no help, but may be worth considering. If you go into any modern car bodyshop you will see all manner of jigs, presses, pullers etc., all designed to return distorted car bodies to their original shape. It might just be worth asking someone in that line of business if they could true up your stand.

Thanks for the bodyshop advise.
Definitely worth a try, I cannot make it any worse.